CITY LEVEL CLIMATE VULNERABILITY ASSESSMENTS Interview with Andrea Young from the city of So Paulo, Brazil

Andrea is an architect with PhD in Urban, Regional and Environmental Planning from UNICAMP-Brazil. Her research interests are linked to Climate Change; Disaster Risk (Sea Level Rise, Floods, Landslides, and Droughts); Resilience and Adaptation Measures involving Megacities, Metropolitan and Rural Areas. She is a specialist in Remote Sensing, Geographic Information System (GIS), Demographic Analysis, and Public Policy (in Brazil). Andrea has been a professor at postgraduation level in Geographic Information Systems for Social Science at the State University of Campinas (UNICAMP) in 2010; and professor of Urban Planning at undergraduate level in Urban and Regional Planning at the Catholic University (PUCCAMP) in 2009.

WHY ARE VULNERABILITY ASSESSMENTS FOR CLIMATE CHANGE IMPORTANT IN CITIES? In the case of Brazil, despite increase awareness since Rio 1992 (the Earth Summit), the health of Brazilian urban areas had deteriorated at an unprecedented rate. The population in urban areas has grown (about 80% of the total population lives in urbanized areas), where social inequality is very high. The national government has focused on economic growth without controlling air pollutants, water contamination, toxic waste sites, and waste of energy. In the last decade, a series of disasters occurred with a significant number of deaths in different states (i.e. So Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, and Santa Catarina); many of them caused by extreme events associated to climate change. The challenge now is to go beyond responding to disasters, to shaping environmental cities. Within this perspective, the vulnerability assessments are very important to identify the risk areas in order to take action and reverse this situation. In Brazil, no city has a structure that is sustainable, but for the first time in history the outlines of what a sustainable city would look like are becoming clearer. Definitely, the risk areas need to be reduced which includes reduction of poverty and social inequality. Adaptation and mitigation constitute part of this urban restructuring; it is a process of no return, which any economy is hostage since natural resources were used without any accountability. Using Geographic Information System (GIS) and mapping tools such as digital elevation models (DEM), it is possible to identify the main areas affected by floods, landslides, and disease outbreaks.

Learning Alliance on Climate Resilient Cities Module 1: Climate Vulnerability Assessments

WHAT LED THE METROPOLITAN AREA OF SO PAULO TO MAP URBAN CLIMATE VULNERABILITY AND RISKS? There have been an increasing number of disasters caused by intense rainfall; the possibility of urban system collapse (days of chaos and incalculable losses) with damage caused to road systems and other infrastructure started interest in such a study. The British Embassy wanted to fund a study a group of research institutions came together to answer the call. The National Space Institute (INPE) under the Ministry of Science and Technology responded to the call, and worked together with the University of So Paulo (USP), and the University of Campinas (UNICAMP). HOW WAS THE MAPPING CONDUCTED? Academia started research on climate vulnerability in the beginning of 2009, and after a period of time decided to ask the opinion (and suggestions) of the local government. A municipal advisor working on environmental and climate change issues worked closely with the team. The British Embassy funded a series of forums with other institutions and NGOs that helped with the focus and research concepts. The objective of the study was to evaluate climate vulnerability at geographic locations based on social and environmental factors and produce different predictive risk maps for the So Paulo Metropolitan Area (SPMA). Within this perspective, these maps are the result of an integration between meteorological (i.e. precipitation, temperature, humidity, etc.) and public health information (i.e. floods and landslides cases, hospital admissions, number of deaths, etc.). We evaluated the geographical areas that are most likely to be at risk (based on climate change hazard). We used ArcGIS to integrate the spatial information and non-spatial attribute data, where each spatial feature and its attribute information were linked. The ArcGIS also provided a module to perform mathematical operations in order to analyse the geographical patterns (i.e. land use, slope, soil and hydrography) and trends of the region (i.e. precipitation, floods). As a result, different maps of vulnerability were produced based on risk evaluation (i.e. flood, landslide, health risk). Many agencies, local government, and universities participated in forums and discussions about the analysis and results carried out. When we presented these maps to local authorities, and they wanted wanted to know what might happen in the future and what a future city might look like. At this point we decided to make a urbanisation scenario map of So Paulo, projecting city growth up to 2030 so that the city could understand which new areas could be affected by climate change.

WHAT WERE THE STRENGTHS OF THE MAPPING TOOLS THAT YOU USED? The integration of meteorological and socio-environmental data. We used very detailed meteorological data and matched it up with social data collected in the same period. It was hard to find data about which areas suffered from a lack of water, and for that we used satellite imagery. We integrated data from many different sources, from institutes that do not usually coordinate with one another.
Learning Alliance on Climate Resilient Cities Module 1: Climate Vulnerability Assessments

WHAT WERE THE CHALLENGES? The challenges were also largely to do with the integration of data, it was a very complex task. In addition to this we had challenges of working with the different public bodies that do not work together in a coordinated, integrated manner.

WHAT WERE THE RESULTS OF THE MAPPING EXERCISE? The results were delivered to the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq), Foundation for the Support of Research of the State of So Paulo (FAPESP), The Climate Network (Rede CLIMA), the City Hall of So Paulo, the British Embassy, the National Space Agency (INPE) (where the data was published on the website for the whole society) and Campinas State University (UNICAMP). The city government said that they would use the different maps in the development of climate change legislation, building codes, and when thinking about investment in expansion of the city. As of yet, we have not seen any concrete actions, but in fact a medium-long term change is needed within the city, and thus we hope to see results in the coming ten to twenty years.

Learning Alliance on Climate Resilient Cities Module 1: Climate Vulnerability Assessments